India and Germany, Europe’s most powerful economy, have signed a landmark agreement to fast-track business approvals for German companies and 17 other agreements encompassing diverse areas ranging from renewable energy and skill development to manufacturing and civil aviation.

Barely days after meeting the leader of Europe’s most powerful economy in New York at a summit meeting to push the UNSC reforms, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be engaging German Chancellor Angela Merkel for full-spectrum talks in New Delhi and seek Berlin’s renewed support for his pet missions of national renewal, including Make in India, Skill India and Smart Cities. The fact that Ms Merkel is bringing with her six senior ministers and top corporate honchos for the October 4-6 trip to New Delhi and Bangalore underlines that the two countries are looking to push the envelope for what Europe’s top economy and Asia’s third largest economy can do together in a host of areas, including manufacturing, skill building, defence, vocational education and high-end R&D, core thrust areas of the burgeoning India-Germany partnership. In seminal ways, India and Germany are made for each other, as Prime Minister Modi has said evocatively, conjuring up a match between resources and demographic dividend of Asia’s rising economy and Germany’s cutting-edge technology, research and innovations. Whichever way one looks at, Germany is pivotal to India’s project of national resurgence and will play a key role in India’s ambition to become a manufacturing hub, driven by innovation and enterprise.

Ahead of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to New Delhi in October, India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is looking to firm up an ambitious agenda to expand economic and strategic ties with Europe’s most powerful economy. During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Germany in April 2015, a joint statement issued at the end of the visit had said the two countries have established a robust roadmap for expanding their multi-faceted and mutually-beneficial ties and to further strengthen strategic partnership.

Ms Swaraj who is on a two-day visit to Germany as part of her two-nation visit to Egypt and Germany will hold talks with her German counterpart Frank Walter Steinmeier and a number of other leaders. India and Germany are expected to review their bilateral relationship and focus on expanding their economic relations.

In the joint statement issued between both countries during PM Modi’s visit to Germany, it was decided that both sides would collaborate in areas such as manufacturing, skill development, urban development, environment, railways and renewable energy.

Collaboration in manufacturing is expected to give thrust to the Make in India campaign. Skill development is expected to improve employability of trainees and apprentices. Establishment of a working group on urban development will strengthen bilateral cooperation and also support development of urban planning and infrastructure in India.

Barely six weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Germany, Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen’s ongoing visit to New Delhi has set in motion a series of steps aimed at boosting defence and cyber security cooperation between the two countries.

The German minister met India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 28 and pitched for a win-win alliance of India’s IT prowess and German technology.

The minister noted that India has excellent human resource which is highly skilled in information technology, while Germany has the technology and knowhow. Working together would create a win-win situation for both of them, she stressed.

Focus on cyber security

According to recent reports, about one billion computers in Germany are infected with Botnet viruses, which makes the country vulnerable to cyber-attacks, making cybercrime a prime concern for the German defense industry. India too, suffered a loss of nearly four billion dollars due to cyber-attacks in 2014.